Nothing should come as a surprise in this era of college football, even USC five-star freshman quarterback Malachi Nelson looking to the transfer portal after just one year in the program.
Reports Sunday night from 247Sports.com's Matt Zenitz, the Los Angeles Times' Ryan Kartje and On3.com's Pete Nakos are that Nelson is expected to land in the portal soon.
A text message to the QB's father Eric Nelson did not get a response.
The freshman quarterback played only four snaps this season but that wasn't unexpected, as the plan was for him to take time recovering from surgery on his non-throwing shoulder that limited him through spring practice while learning behind star QB Caleb Williams and veteran backup Miller Moss.
USC coach Lincoln Riley further revealed earlier this month that Nelson dealt with other injury issues in his first year that limited his development as a true freshman, though Riley reiterated optimism for his potential.
"Malachi is obviously a young guy, he’s got a world of talent, he’s working hard, he’s had a few physical hurdles he’s had to overcome, which has not been – it hasn’t necessarily been maybe the smoothest of years and a lot of it out of his control just trying to get back healthy where he can train and develop to the level that he wants to and we all want to," Riley said. "He’s certainly going to get there and certainly has a bright future and has battled for a lot of things. So we’re eager to get him back completely healthy and back where he’s developing on a really fast track, and I don’t think he’s that far away from it but that’s still been a little bit of a process."
Nelson, from nearby Los Alamitos HS, was the No. 4-ranked pro-style quarterback and No. 14 overall national prospect in the 2023 recruiting class. He had committed to Riley initially at Oklahoma and then flipped his pledge to USC when Riley took over the Trojans.
With Williams heading off to the NFL (though he has yet to make an official declaration despite already being confirmed as opting out of USC's bowl game), Riley has been evaluating potential transfer QB additions to add to the competition and depth at the position. USC hosted Kansas State transfer QB Will Howard on a visit this weekend.
It's unclear what prompted Nelson's decision to consider the transfer portal, but it should have always been presumed that Riley would look to bring in another QB this offseason as USC does not have a QB committed in this 2024 recruiting class and would be left with three untested options in Moss, Nelson and former JUCO transfer Jake Jensen for 2024.
If Nelson does depart the program, USC will have new depth concerns at the position, even if it brings in Howard or another transfer QB.
Given the setbacks Nelson incurred this first year, it also seemed unlikely he was ready to compete for the starting job in 2024, but he would have had a prime chance to make a run at it in 2025, even if five-star QB commit Julien Lewis reclassifies from the 2026 recruiting class, as has been speculated.
